Wingtip Installation

Austin was home for my birthday party on Sunday and helped me work on installing the wingtips.

Autopilot Roll Servo

I installed and tested the autopilot roll servo.

Heated Pitot Installed

I removed the stock pitot tube and installed my Dynon heated pitot and Angle of Attack (AOA) probe this weekend.

Here's the routing I used for the pitot and AOA tube routing around the aileron bellcrank.

Here's where I mounted the controller. I was able to get my pneumatic rivet squeezer up into the space and install nutplates. I cut some small UHMW blocks and used them as spacers between the controller and the rib. The spacers also helped by holding the screws in-place to make it easier to screw them into the nutplates.

Finishing Front Windscreen Fairing

Last night, I finished sanding the front windscreen fairing and applied three thin coats of resin. The West System fiberglass resin gets squeegeed hard into the sanded surface to fill all the pinholes and seal the surface. I'll sand it again with fine sandpaper to make sure everything is smooth and repeat the resin coating (or as I like to call it, the hard candy shell) if required until it's all smooth. Then, all that's left is primer and a bead around the edges to seal everything and I'll be done.

Here's the fairing after priming. It turned out well and I was planning to paint the final finish the next day but the weather forecast of sunny and 72 turned into drizzle and 65. Shelby was home and helped me a bunch in the garage for my Christmas present. She does a great job organizing and was able to help me with cleaning and putting things back in their place and making better places so I could find the tools I need when I need them! I told her that her help was just as important as anything else during the build because it all has to be done before flying no matter what the job.

Working On Panel Labels

I've started planning work on the panel labels. Most things like switches will need to be labeled. I still have the throttle attachment to go on the lower center of the panel but planning is a good activity while fiberglass is drying on other parts of the airplane. Several have asked about the color of the interior paint. It's Sherwin Williams JetFlex Interior Aircraft Finish L09026, Robin Blue, BAC 510.